Militants dressed as cricketers kill five Kashmir police

Officials say militants disguised as cricketers have killed five paramilitary police in an ambush in the main city of Indian Kashmir.

Two gunmen from local pro-Pakistan group Hizbul Mujahideen, which has claimed the attack, were shot dead after the assault on a playing field in the Bemina district of Srinagar.

The area is home to a police school and barracks.

A senior police officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the extremists pretended to be joining children for a game of cricket before taking out automatic weapons from a bag and throwing a grenade.

"They first mixed up with the children playing cricket," the officer said, who was not authorised to speak to the media.

A police statement said four civilians were also injured.

The Kashmir News Network (KNS), a Srinagar-based news agency, reported receiving a call from a Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman who claimed the "guerilla attack" and said others would follow.

The Himalayan region, where a 20-year anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years, has been tense since the execution in February of a local separatist over a deadly 2001 attack on the national parliament in Delhi.